Bristol Rovers 2 Gillingham 1

Match 32/09/784 - Saturday, 21st November 2009 - League One

Bristol Rovers (1) 2 Lines 17, Hughes (pen) 81
Gillingham (1) 1 Barcham 40
Att. 6,210

Entrance: £17.50
Programme: £3
Mileage: 340/4,127

Match Report

If I had bumped into Matt Fry on Sunday at Sainsburys I would have asked him one simple, one word question: “Why?”, and it appeared to me that Simon Royce was asking him much the same as the referee pointed to the spot. Maybe Fry thought that the wrestling match with Andy Williams, that had seen the central defender go to ground, was going to lead to a free kick in his favour, but why he dragged the ball back with his hand is completely beyond me. What was the worse that was going to happen, a corner to Bristol Rovers? As it was Jeff Hughes sent Royce the wrong way and stroked home the winner.

This was the culmination of a horrible day for the travelling support, especially the hardy souls stationed on the open terrace. It might look like a large market stall but at least the tarpaulin roof offered some respite from the elements for the seated section of Gills support, including yours truly! The rain was torrential and relentless and driven by a fierce wind, making playing conditions also very difficult.

My pre-match consideration had centred around the comparison that could be made between the striker that we didn’t get, Chris Dickson matched up against the one we did, Febian Brandy. It was also going to be a first look at Brandy in an away game with an opportunity to see how his partnership with Simeon Jackson was developing. As it was, neither striker impressed, not surprising given the conditions, and manager Stimson decided not to go with the diminutive pairing from the off.

Gillingham played into the wind in the first half and whilst Royce’s kicks struggled to make the half way line, opposition keeper Mikkel Andersen was kicking it the length of the field. There was not much in the way of chances for either side before the 17th minute when Rovers took the lead. An overhead kick from Dickson was palmed away by Royce but Danny Coles retrieved the ball, laid it back to Chris Lines who fired in from inside the box.

Gillingham struggled in the conditions to get any forward momentum and it came as a bit of a surprise five minutes before the break when Andy Barcham fired in a spectacular equaliser from the best part of 25 yards. A kicked clearance from Royce was headed on in the centre circle by Stuart Lewis and picked up just inside Rovers half by Barcham who ran into his shooting position and lobbed keeper Andersen to the delight of the travelling faithful.

During the break my fateful comments were that now the conditions were in our favour I would’nt take the draw, this game was for winning. Unfortunately, Gillingham disappointed badly and failed to use the wind to their advantage. After a beginning to the half in which they played the ball along the ground, the tactic somehow got lost and the long balls in the air were all too often carried by the wind into harmless territory. Perhaps the ground was becoming so saturated that the passing game was impossible, but one way or another, any advantage the visitors had was being wasted.

Royce was called into action to make a good save from Joe Kuffour, one that the keeper indicated had been made with the side of his face, such was the swirling nature of the wind.

Fry and Josh Gowling had suffered a testing afternoon at the hands of a bustling strike force, but it was not Dickson that had caused the real problems. On his substitution with 25 minutes remaining there were more than a few cheers as his number was held up suggesting that he has not won the hearts of the Memorial Stadium.

Following the penalty Gillingham pressed forward in search of an equaliser and Jackson, on as a 65th minute substitute, rather surprisingly for Curtis Weston, saw a goal bound effort cleared away by Byron Anthony.

So another disappointing day on the road for Gillingham and their faithful, just where this elusive first win on the road is going to come, goodness only knows, but with hope in our hearts, it is at the Orient next Tuesday.

When we were last at the Memorial Stadium in April 2008, Bristol Rovers were supposedly one match away from redeveloping the site and a ground share was in the offing. Sadly, nothing has changed, the same old jumble of makeshift stands and dated, permanent structures. Presumably the recession has bitten in the plans and we will be spending time under the tarpaulin in the future.